We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.

Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble.

When a man marries a widow his jealousies revert to the past: no man is as good as his wife says her first husband was

Among many parallels which men of imagination have drawn between the natural and moral state of the world, it has been observed that happiness as well as virtue consists in mediocrity.

It is very strange, and very melancholy, that the paucity of human pleasures should persuade us ever to call hunting one of them.

A successful author is equally in danger of the diminution of his fame, whether he continues or ceases to write. The regard of the public is not to be kept but by tribute, and the remembrance of past service will quickly languish unless successive performances frequently revive it. Yet in every new attempt there is new hazard, and there are few who do not, at some unlucky time, injure their own characters by attempting to enlarge them.

Thought is always troublesome to him who lives without his own approbation.